SO jQuery Fiddle

Test Fiddle mainly for SO Questions jQuery 1.4.3, UI 1.8.5

by Nick Craver

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.5/themes/ui-lightness/jquery-ui.css">
<body>
    <p>
        Hello
        <i>how <b>are</b> you</i>
        and
        <i>what <b>are <tt>you</tt> going</b> to</i>
        eat tonight?
    </p>
</body>

JavaScript

alert($("b:first").parents().filter($("tt").parents())[0].nodeName);